16 February 2009
by Ferry

On the Wii Shop today: Evasive Space and Life Force

Today Nintendo adds new/classic games to the popular Wii Shop Channel. The games go live at 9AM Pacific time. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at stores like Amazon (see Card above).

We’ve included videos of each of today’s games for nostalgia’s sake or so you can see if it’s to your taste.

This week’s new WiiWare game is:

Evasive Space (Yukes Company of America, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 1,000 Wii Points = $10): Launch a one-of-a-kind mission to rescue the stars. The universe is going dark, and it’s up to you, Konki the Stellar Guardian, to set things right. Dr. Dark Matter and his roving band of space thieves have stolen many of the Constellation Stones that make up the heavens. It’s time to suit up, power up, recover the Stones and once again bring light to the night sky. Using the Wii Remoteâ„¢ controller’s unique pointer capabilities, simply point and thrust Konki through 20 dangerous time- and collection-based missions in the harshest of environments. Navigate through narrow, mazelike astral caves riddled with space worms, steam pipes and mining drills. Explore vast space stations while avoiding turret fire, mines and huge crushing gears. Weave through cluttered asteroid fields and gaseous planetary rings. Evade the hazards, pick up precious items and ship upgrades, and save the Constellation Stones before the night sky is lost forever.

Select HQ in the bottom-right menu for readable text.

This week’s new Virtual Console game is:

Life Force (NES, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 500 Wii Points = $5): This classic shooter, originally ported to the NES in August 1988, is a spin-off of the seminal Gradius series. Pilot the Vic Viper through six stages of intense action, alternating between horizontally and vertically scrolling environments, and take on wave after wave of enemies. Destroy particular enemies throughout the game (which takes place within the body of an enormous alien) to release power-up capsules and equip your ship with your choice of more powerful weapons, extra speed and shields. Utilize the power-ups carefully, though, as a fearsome guardian lurks at the end of each stage and won’t be easily defeated. You can go it alone or bring along a friend to take on the challenge simultaneously in co-op mode. Do you have what it takes to save your planet?

15 February 2009
by Ferry

How to unlock all Street Fighter 4 secret characters (guide)

How to unlock all secret Street Fighter 4 characters? That question will be answered in this guide that shows you who to unlock to get the full roster and how.

Below we’ve listed the 9 secret Street Fighter IV characters in alphabetical order. Take the following steps to unlock each one.

1. Akuma: After unlocking Sakura Kasugano, Dan Hibiki, Cammy White, Fei Long, Gen, and Rose. First finish the arcade mode (on any difficulty) with any character, in this case use that same character for this second or later playthrough. Then fight Akuma on arcade mode, to do that get: at least 1 perfect round on 1-round matches (or 2 perfects on 3-round matches / 3 perfects on 5-round matches / 4 perfects on 7-round matches) including the last battle against Seth. No ultra combo finishes needed. But you can’t lose any matches/rounds nor use a continue when you die. Beating Akuma will unlock him.

2. Cammy White: Finish the arcade mode with Crimson Viper. That will unlock her.

3. Dan Hibiki: Finish the arcade mode with Sakura Kasugano. That will unlock him.

4. Fei Long: Finish the arcade mode with Abel. That will unlock him.

5. Gen: Finish the arcade mode with Chun-Li. That will unlock him.

6. Gouken: After unlocking Akuma, Sakura Kasugano, Dan Hibiki, Cammy White, Fei Long, Gen, and Rose. First finish the arcade mode (on any difficulty) with Akuma, and watch (not necessary to watch everything) an ending. In this case to play also use a character you already finished arcade mode with, and with which you watched the ending once, for his/her second or later playthrough. Then fight Gouken on arcade mode, to do that get: at least 1 perfect round on 1-round matches (or 2 perfects on 3-round matches / 3 perfects on 5-round matches / 4 perfects on 7-round matches), plus at least 3 Super Combo or Ultra Combo Finishes on 1-round matches (or 5 super/ultra finishes on 3-round matches / 7 super/ultra finishes on 5-round matches / 9 super/ultra finishes on 7-round matches), and at least 5 First Attacks — meaning you must score the first strike in a match — in 1 match (or 10 first attacks in 3-round matches / 15 first attacks in 5-round matches / 20 first attacks in 7-round matches). But you can’t lose any matches/rounds nor use a continue when you die. Beating Gouken will unlock him.

7. Rose: Finish the arcade mode with M. Bison. That will unlock her.

8. Sakura Kasugano: Finish the arcade mode with Ryu. That will unlock her.

9. Seth: Finish the arcade mode with all 24 other characters. That will unlock him.

A useful tip at the start of the game: With every (starter) character you use to beat the game, another one gets unlocked.

The below video shows you how to unlock Street Fighter 4 characters with an incredibly easy to perform tip that works on every character. In this case Crimson Viper is used to unlock Cammy White. Set the difficulty to easiest, and the rounds to one. Go through each opponent while hitting Hard Kick or Hard Punch repeatedly. This works because on easiest, the computer controlled opponents are rather stupid. So keep pounding those buttons, and if your controller or joystick supports auto-fire, place a weight on the button to speed up the process. Whichever way you do it, after about 10 minutes your new character will be unlocked!

Article continues »

15 February 2009
by Ferry

Competition time: Win Blue Dragon Plus and a Nintendo DS Lite

Update: The winner of our Blue Dragon Plus and a Nintendo DS Lite competition is announced here.

Welcome to our “Blue Dragon Plus and Nintendo DS Lite” competition where you have the chance to win Ignition Entertainment’s new Blue Dragon Plus tactical-RPG along with a brand new Nintendo DS Lite handheld to play it on!

Grand prize:
* Nintendo DS Lite
* Blue Dragon Plus game
* Blue Dragon Plus strategy guide
* Blue Dragon Plus half deck
* Blue Dragon Plus game mat

What do you need to do to win? Answer the question “What is the name of Shu’s Shadow?” in a comment below.

For hints watch this Blue Dragon Plus trailer:

What are the rules? Winner must be located in the USA. All you have to do is leave one comment (per person) on this page with your answer, before March 15th has passed by. The winner will be announced the next day. Fill out your real email so we can contact you if you win (your email will be invisible to other readers, only the site staff can see it). Good luck!

This all in celebration of the release of Blue Dragon Plus for Nintendo DS on February 24th, 2009.

Blue Dragon Plus features:
o Single Player Campaign With Over 30 Hours of Game Play
o Legion vs. Legion
+ Control up to 16 humans and Mecha Robos to fight against a horde of enemies
+ Equip your units with items and alter their composition to bolster their strength
o Take Advantage of Your DS Features Through Exciting Real-Time Battles and Shadow Fights
o High Quality Dual Screen Full-Motion Videos Showcasing More Than an Hour of Story Events
o Exciting RPG Elements Such As Item Collection, Character Progression and Robot Customizations

15 February 2009
by Ferry

Official WWE Legends of Wrestlemania character list

42 Playable characters have been confirmed for the roster of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 fighting game WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, that will be released in America on March 24th, 2009. The professional wrestling game focuses on arcade-style gameplay. It allows you to relive, rewrite, or redefine fights between legendary wrestlers who have appeared at WrestleMania in the 1980s and 1990s.

List of playable characters in alphabetical order:

1. Andre the Giant
2. Arn Anderson
3. Bam Bam Bigelow
4. Big Boss Man
5. Big John Studd
6. Bobby Heenan
7. Bret Hart
8. British Bulldog
9. Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake
10. Dusty Rhodes
11. Greg “The Hammer” Valentine
12. “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan
13. Honky Tonk Man
14. Hulk Hogan
15. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
16. Jake “The Snake” Roberts
17. Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart
18. Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka
19. Jimmy Hart
20. Junkyard Dog
21. Kamala
22. King Kong Bundy
23. Koko B. Ware
24. Michael Hayes
25. “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase
26. Mr. Fuji
27. Mr. Perfect
28. Nikolai Volkoff
29. Paul Bearer
30. “Ravishing” Rick Rude
31. Ric Flair
32. Road Warrior Animal
33. Road Warrior Hawk
34. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper
35. Sgt. Slaughter
36. Shawn Michaels
37. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin
38. The Iron Sheik
39. The Rock
40. Ultimate Warrior
41. Undertaker
42. Yokozuna

Who else do you think they should add?

Watch the first WWE Legends of Wrestlemania trailer:

Thanks to Spider for listing the so far revealed characters.

15 February 2009
by Ferry

World of Warcraft patch 3.0.9 out now

The latest World of Warcraft Patch 3.0.9 has been released for download by Blizzard. This is the most recent patch for World of Warcraft updating the popular MMORPG from version 3.0.8 to version 3.0.9.

Please note that this update doesn’t add dual specializations and the new raid instance Ulduar, those will be added in WoW patch 3.1. Instead, this update focuses on class-specific tweaks and improving the user interface. More as described below…

Druids
* Ferocious Bite: This ability now only uses up to 30 energy in addition to its base cost.

Hunters
* Kindred Spirits (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet damage at max rank.
* Serpent’s Swiftness (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet attack speed at max rank.
* Pets
o Lava Breath now reduces the target’s casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.
o Poison Spit now reduces the target’s casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.

Mages
* Arcane Power now increases damage and mana cost by 20%, cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
* Arcane Power and Presence of Mind now share a category cooldown. Arcane Power causes a 15 second cooldown. Presence of Mind, once consumed, causes a 1.5 second cooldown.
* Arcane Flows now reduces the cooldown of Presence of Mind, Arcane Power and Invisibility by 15/30%.
* Presence of Mind: The cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes, (down from 3.)
* Slow (Arcane): now increases cast time by 30%, down from 60%.

Paladins
* The duration on all Seals has been increased to 30 minutes and can no longer be dispelled.
* Divine Plea: The amount healed by your spells is reduced by 50% (up from 20%), but the effect can no longer be dispelled.
* Sanctified Seals: This talent no longer affects dispel resistance, but continues to affect crit chance.

Priests
* Inner Fire duration has been increased to 30 minutes and can no longer dispelled.

Rogues
* Hunger for Blood (Assassination): Now increases damage 5% per stack, (up from 3%.)
* Mind Numbing Poison now reduces cast time by 30%, down from 60%.
* Mutilate damage will now do 20% increased damage against poisoned targets, down from 50%.
* Slice and Dice (Rank 2): This ability now increases melee attack speed by 40%, up from 30%.

Warlocks
* Curse of Tongues: Now increases the casting time of all spells by 25% (Rank 1) and 30% (Rank 2), down from 50% and 60%.
Article continues »

15 February 2009
by Ferry

Baldur’s Gate III to be revisited for 2010 development by Atari

It all started in the January 2008 issue of PC Gamer UK, where the editor claimed that Baldur’s Gate III was being worked on, a statement that was repeated a year later in the January 2009 issue of the magazine. With a note that any more information is unlikely to surface until later in 2009, possibly even 2010.

Luckily for fans, on December 2nd 2008, Atari stated in a press conference that the Baldur’s Gate series — amongst others — would be revisited after 2009, so in 2010 it’s possible Baldur’s Gate III will show up as in development for PC, as reported by Eurogamer.

In the meantime, you should know that developer BioWare’s Dragon Age Origins is seen as the spiritual sequel to the Baldur’s Gate series.

14 February 2009
by Ferry

Top 5 game sales per system worldwide in week 6, 2009

What are the best-selling games in America, Japan, and Europe (UK, France, Germany) this week? Thanks to Amazon online sales data here are the games that are the most popular right now.

Nintendo Wii
North America: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 2. Rock Band 2 Special Edition (Electronic Arts), 3. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 4. Wii Play (Nintendo), 5. My Fitness Coach (Ubisoft).

Japan: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 2. Taiko: Drum Master Wii (Namco), 3. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 4. Another Code: R - Gateway of Memory (Nintendo), 5. New Wii Play Control! Mario Power Tennis GC (Nintendo).

Europe: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 2. The House of the Dead: Overkill (Sega), 3. My Fitness Coach (Ubisoft), 4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega), 5. Wii Play (Nintendo).

Xbox 360
North America: 1. Call of Duty: World at War (Activision), 2. Halo 3 (Microsoft), 3. Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection (Sega), 4. Gears of War 2 (Microsoft), 5. Left 4 Dead (Electronic Arts).

Japan: 1. Street Fighter IV (Capcom), 2. Skate 2 (Electronic Arts), 3. Left 4 Dead (Electronic Arts), 4. Tales of Vesperia (Namco), 5. Gears of War - Platinum Collection (Microsoft).

Europe: 1. Left 4 Dead (Electronic Arts), 2. FIFA 09 (Electronic Arts), 3. Call of Duty: World at War (Activision), 4. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros.), 5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Game of the Year Edition (Activision).

PlayStation 3
North America: 1. Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection (Sega), 2. LittleBigPlanet (Sony), 3. Call of Duty: World at War (Activision), 4. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar), 5. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Konami).

Japan: 1. Demon’s Souls (Sony), 2. Street Fighter IV (Capcom), 3. Yakuza: Kenzan! - The Best Of PlayStation 3 Edition (Sega), 4. Fallout 3 (Bethesda), 5. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami).

Europe: 1. LittleBigPlanet (Sony), 2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Game of the Year Edition (Activision), 3. FIFA 09 (Electronic Arts), 4. Resistance 2 (Sony), 5. Motorstorm: Pacific Rift (Sony).

PlayStation 2 Article continues »

14 February 2009
by Ferry

Street Fighter 4 on the Wii and iPhone is possible says Capcom producer

Street Fighter 4 producer Yoshinori Ono was interviewed back at the Leipzig Games Convention 2008, which brought up an interesting proposal. After the Arcade, PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Street Fighter 4, it could come to Wii and iPhone! Here are some choice quotes from that interview.

1UP asks: There’s been some talk from Capcom — I can’t remember if it was you or someone else who said this — that if there’s enough demand for it, a Wii version of Street Fighter 4 could be possible. So where are you with things now? How would you view a Street Fighter game on the Wii — would you keep it as “Street Fighter 4″ or do some sort of “Street Fighter Kids”?

Mr. Ono answers: Yeah, it’s definitely true that we’ve had a lot of requests for a port for the Wii. And it’s definitely doable. We just don’t have any plans for it yet, that’s all. If we feel strongly enough that it would sell, I’d imagine we’d do it. But it definitely would be Street Fighter 4 — not some dumbed down version.

1UP asks: So is there really any question within Capcom that a Wii version would sell?

Mr. Ono answers: Going back to my philosophy for Street Fighter, the game is essentially a tool, not just a unique piece of entertainment. I think of it like chess — that game can be played anywhere. As long as people want to play Street Fighter 4, it could be on anything — even this iPhone, for that matter [Points to the iPhone on the table]. It really could be on any platform that could support it. So let’s just see what happens.

14 February 2009
by Ferry

Half-Life 2 movie short shows Escape From City 17

The Escape From City 17 short film series is an adaptation based on the Half-Life 2 computer game saga by Valve Corporation. Directors The Purchase Brothers originally envisioned it as a project to test out numerous post production techniques, as well as a spec commercial, it ballooned into a multi-part series. Filmed guerilla style with no money, no time, no crew, no script, the first two episodes were made from beginning to end on a budget of $500.

Can’t wait for the second part, the special effects looks better than some Hollywood blockbusters. Valve needs to hire these guys to do a full Half-Life movie ASAP. Luckily Valve flew the team out to Seattle last year, and the brothers have been in communication with them since. So fingers crossed. — If you’re dying to watch a Half-Life-like movie, I suggest you rent/buy the 2006 Clive Owen movie Children of Men.

Watch part one of Escape From City 17:

Click on the bottom-right menu HQ button to view it in HD.

14 February 2009
by Ferry

Killzone 2 debuts on Dutch National News

The number one Dutch TV channel RTL4 visited Guerrilla Games in its Amsterdam base to report with fitting pride about the PlayStation 3 blockbuster Killzone 2. The reporter remarks the shooting game has a budget in the millions that rivals that of big Hollywood blockbuster movies. As well as showing how the games industry will grow — just like it did in the 80’s — in the coming years despite the economic downturn.

It’s stated Killzone 2’s goal is to make sure more PS3’s are sold. When talking to Guerrilla Games’ director Hermen Hulst, he says: “It’s an important title for the PlayStation 3. It’s up to us to show what’s possible on the PlayStation 3 that’s not possible on competing platforms. In the end the player will have to decide if we succeeded in doing that.”

Here’s the (mostly Dutch) full Killzone 2 report footage: